Road condition becomes poll issue in Ludhiana

Once known as the ‘Benz City of India’ with a good number of luxury cars, the owners of such vehicles in Ludhiana are not happy with the condition of roads. No wonder, many political parties have made bad condition of Ludhiana roads an issue in the current Lok Sabha elections.

Many city residents own luxury cars, including Jaguar, Porsche, Audi, Mercedes Land Rover and BMW, and a sizeable number of such car owners are irritated by the potholed roads, a report carried by TNN News Networks said.

It quoted South City resident Mr Samir Verma, owner of Mercedes and Land Rover vehicles, as saying “We don’t think much before buying such vehicles, but we should. The roads in the city and on the outskirts are not proper for driving such vehicles, and as a result, our vehicles suffer damages.”

Apart from that, he said, “It does cause inconvenience to those driving the vehicles and the co-passengers. As Lok Sabha elections are around, we will keep the issue of bad condition of roads while casting votes, and will vote for a candidate whom we think will solve this problem.”

Vehicle owners say Ludhianvis pay a lot of taxes, including road using charges, but the condition of roads in the city is disappointing. “Ludhiana is a major industrial city of northern India, and Ludhianvis pay huge taxes to the Government, which we feel should be utilised for the better infrastructure, but that is not happening”, said another resident.

As the condition of the roads is not proper, and results in damage to tyres and the suspension system, we have to spend money to get vehicles repaired and replace tyres,” said Mr Daleep Khanna, an industrialist from Sarabha Nagar and owner of Audi 4 vehicle.

He added: “We, the city industrialists, don’t want anything from the government, but better roads and round-the-clock power supply, but that is not happening. In Focal Point, the condition of roads is really bad. He expects the representative they choose will get them better roads.

Many luxury car owners say though roads are not in a proper shape in most areas of the city, in certain posh areas including South City, Barewal, and Dugri, the problem is pretty bad. “Not only luxury vehicle owners, but those owning other types of cars are also suffering, because of potholes on the roads. It is not a good experience to drive on city roads. As elections are round the corner, the agencies concerned have got potholes on many city roads filled, but it seems those patches will be exposed after the election. Those governing should have some pity on the residents and provide proper roads,” said a luxury car owner of Barewal.

Sources at the service stations of leading luxury cars in the city said every month they get roughly around 30-35 such cars with damaged tyres and suspension because of improper roads in the city.

Mr Tejpal Singh Gill of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said: For the past many days, I have been campaigning in various areas of the city, and have found that people are really upset with the bad condition of roads. We are for better infrastructure in the city, including proper roads in Ludhiana, so we have kept it as the topmost issue.”

Mr Simarjit Singh Bains, Lok Insaf Party chief and Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) candidate, said: “Not to speak of luxury car owners, who are not happy with the condition of roads in city, even other vehicle owners are upset with the roads. We will definitely have better roads as a major issue in the elections.”

Mr Ranjit Singh Dhillon, SAD District (Urban) President, said, “During our tenure, we had built many major roads, but some works got halted. However, we feel bad that the condition of roads is the worst at present, and there are potholes on most roads. Because of potholes, vehicles are getting damaged, and bones of people are getting broken. We are highlighting this issue in our campaign.”

Mr Ashwani Sharma, Congress District (Urban) President: “We inherited problems from the previous SAD-BJP regime, and even faced problems in paying Class IV employees, as they had not done so. However, after streamlining that, we started road repair works, but because of rains that work got stopped for a few days. We are committed to provide better roads to Ludhiana residents.”

Mr Rajneesh Ahuja, president of Focal Point Phase IV Association, said, “Where are the roads in Focal Point? Roads were constructed long ago, and at present, those roads are more like village roads. Last year, the Chief Minister had sanctioned Rs 32 crore during his visit for roads in Focal Point, which has more than a thousand industries, but so far, we haven’t seen even Rs 32 being spent on the roads there. The result is that vehicles are getting damaged, and those repairing the vehicles are making merry.”